


This, That, and the Otter

by cognomen



Series: The Endless Adventures of Otter!Poe [6]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Animal Transformation, Fluff, Multi, Otter!Poe, otter poe to the rescue, shaking hands with danger, unsafe ship maintenance practices
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 07:19:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13899099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cognomen/pseuds/cognomen
Summary: “Whose bad idea was this?” Finn asks, confronted by the evidence of the bad decision making that has obviously taken place here.“Uh,” Rose hides her hands behind her back like a kid caught in a candy jar. “I’d say this was amutual responsibilitysituation.”Poe’s sturdy, flat tail flaps once in irritation, as he squirms in the confined space of the exhaust port. It’s about the only part Finn can see of Poe. The rest of him is in the exhaust port, trapped.Typical.





	This, That, and the Otter

“Whose bad idea was this?” Finn asks, confronted by the evidence of the bad decision making that has obviously taken place here.

“Uh,” Rose hides her hands behind her back like a kid caught in a candy jar. “I’d say this was a _mutual responsibility_ situation.”

Poe’s sturdy, flat tail flaps once in irritation, as he squirms in the confined space of the exhaust port. It’s about the only part Finn can see of Poe. The rest of him is _in_ the exhaust port, trapped. 

Typical.

“Okay,” Finn says, trying to set aside his immediate reaction of irate anger over the whole situation. Why would anyone ever do anything so reckless? _Because they’re Poe Dameron, that’s why._ “Okay. What was he doing?”

“Cleaning,” Rose says. “Looking for a block.”

“Well,” Finn says, “Now he _is_ a block.”

“Yep,” Rose agrees. “I’m sure we can get him out though?”

She doesn’t sound as sure as Finn would like of that.  Finn suggests, “We could cut the exhaust port ahead of him, and push him through?”

Rose recoils, and Finn hears a chirp of protest echo out of the port. “We’d have to replace the whole system!”

“I mean, it’s not going to work with Poe stuck in it either,” Finn sighs. _Mechanics._ “Didn’t you guys ever have to watch safety holos? You know, ‘don’t shake hands with danger’?”

Rose looks at him blankly. “He always fit before.”

Finn looks at the pipe, and finds he’s not really comforted by the idea that this has happened in the past on more than one occasion. “Well, he’s been getting a little bigger in the middle, lately.”

Mostly, he’ll admit, due to pampering by himself and Rey.

Poe squeaks an echoing protest, kicking and thumping his disagreement.

“I think there’s a dent,” Rose says, tactfully.

Finn sighs. He gives Poe’s tail a glance, and tries tugging on it experimentally. No good. Poe’s really stuck.

“Okay, well, I guess we’d better try and find some kind of grease.” Finn says. “This is not how I thought this day was going to go.”

Poe chatters an agreement, managing to sound enough like he does when complaining in his other form that Finn laughs in spite of himself.

 

-

Rey finds the three of them filthy and struggling with the better part of Poe’s furry backside protruding from the exhaust port of one of the larger supply transport ships in the maintenance bay.

“Do I want to know how this happened?” Rey asks.

Rose turns toward her, revealing a grease-stained face and smeared hands and outfit. “Oh. Hey, Rey!”

“Our boyfriend is stuck in a pipe,” Finn informs her, as if she couldn’t have deduced the full of the situation by the furry version of Poe’s backside and tail hanging out. “Also, Rose apparently knows about this.”

“Seems that way,” Rey says, feeling a very strange sort of fond patience for her boyfriends and their tendency to sometimes make incomprehensible decisions.

“I think we’ve almost got him out,” Rose says, cheerfully. “The grease helped a lot.”

“Well, let me see if I can help,” Rey offers, unsure what she might do with the Force, but maybe she can just…

She reaches out with her feelings and thoughts carefully. She and Poe have shared this kind of connection a few times before, but they always speak about it first. This, she figures, qualifies as an emergency. So, probably, if she goes slow and pulls away if he resists, this is okay.

To her surprise, his presence isn’t the only one she senses. It’s so surprising at first that _she_ pulls away.

“Poe’s not alone in there,” She says, as much to herself as her two friends struggling to get a firm grip on Poe’s greased up back paws.

“What?” Finn asks.

“There’s something else in there with him,” Rey says, reaching out again. Careful. In Poe she senses determination and his usual stubborn resolve not to give up on a job half-done. It’s gotten him into trouble again here, which is no surprise.

In the other life, she senses fear and a desire to hide.

“What is it?” Rose asks, letting go of Poe’s footpaw like he was the stopper on a bottle she’d just been told was full of bees.

“I’m not sure,” Rey admits. “But they don’t seem to be hurting each other. Here, let me.”

Rey reaches out and trade places with Rose, getting a firm grip on Poe by one hindpaw and the base of his tail. Finn grabs hold of the other paw, and she reaches out to warn Poe.

“One, two, three- _pull!”_

Poe sticks a little but she doesn’t let up, and once his hips and butt have cleared the opening, it gets easier. Poe gives a wiggle in their grip and then slides completely free onto the floor, blackened with exhaust soot and dripping with machine oil.

Clasped between his front paws is a small, filthy, and shivering animal so covered in exhaust it’s almost unrecognizable. It blinks luminous green eyes open to squint into the light, fixes its gaze on Rey, and winds up before unleashing an echoingly loud _miao_  to sum up the situation.

 

- 

“So, I guess I found the blockage,” Poe brags, as he stands in the shower and washes soot and grease from his skin.

“Poe, I thought you were really stuck!” Finn complains, over the pitiful mewing of the pittin he’s trying to rinse in the sink.

“I was,” Poe says. “I couldn’t use my hands. I was worried if I let go at all, it would go even deeper and we wouldn’t have had a chance to get it out.”

“What possessed you to go into the exhaust port to begin with?” Rey asks, washing Poe’s back for him as much as an excuse to steal all the hot water as to help him out.

“It’s always worked out in the past,” Poe tells her, grinning. “Besides, if I hadn’t, that poor little guy would have been in tough shape.”

He turns around to pull Rey against him and kiss her cheek. “Besides, even if Finn thought I was just stuck from being too fat, I knew you guys would get me out. You’re my raft.”

They keep him afloat.

“In my defense, you were _also_ stuck because of your belly,” Finn calls.

Poe gets out of the shower, leaving Rey to finish washing her hair and going to help Finn towel dry the miserable pittin. It’s a pale violet, now that it’s fur is clean, and it’s wet and shivering but seems resigned to its fate.

“Okay, what do we do with him?” Finn asks.

“Keep him out of the hangar,” Poe suggests. “Either of you want a pet?”

He realizes he’s set himself up when Rey exchanges a look with Finn while toweling her hair dry.

“We already have a pet,” Rey says, beautiful and pink-cheeked from the shower.

“Yean, one type of fur on my clothes is enough,” Finn agrees.

“How can you say no to this face?” Poe says, holding up the damp (and now purring) pittin.

“Poe, I’m saying no to _your_ face,” Finn says, rubbing the animal gently between his ears before leaning around to kiss Rey. “I bet Rose would like a friend, though.”

“That’s a good idea,” Poe says, realizing that it _is_ , as he sets the pittin down and gives Finn a hug.

Later, with the pittin delivered to Rose and Jess’ quarters and the excitement of the day behind them, Poe joins Rey and Finn in bed, reaching out to take their hands. It feels good and right.

“Hey Poe?” Finn says.

“Yeah?”

“Promise you’ll watch a few safety holos with me?” Finn says, sounding so earnest that poe has to stop himself from laughing.

“Trust me, buddy,” Poe assures him, giving both their hands a squeeze. “I only want to hold hands with you two from now on, and not danger.”

“What?” Rey laughs.

“He’ll explain later,” Poe assures her, yawning. Finn probably will, too. He seem spretty serious about those safety holos.

-

 

The End.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to MayGlenn for showing me the MST3K shorts special which included the 'Shake hands with danger' short, which Finn references.


End file.
